"I Am the Door"

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In the reading today from the holy Gospel according to St. John the Theologian, our Lord says of Himself that He is “the door.” What does He mean when He says this? One place we can go for insight is the reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Mark: a memorable scene, in which a paralyzed man, carried by four friends to our Lord to be healed, is actually brought into His presence by being lowered through a hole they made in the roof. What does the Lord tell this man to heal him? “Your sins are forgiven.”

Of course, this stirs up the Pharisees, who sought at all times to live according to the 613 laws of Moses, because they thought that this was the pathway to salvation. Having dealt with the man’s problem, our Lord then dispels their objections by healing the man physically as well as spiritually, linking the two. This is important for us to understand; so let’s look at the objections raised by the dissenters.

“Who but God can forgive sins?” they ask. Our Lord thus shows all who would raise this objection that He is, indeed, God, by restoring the paralyzed man to physical health, so that he could stand, pick up his bed, and return without help to his home. So it is that we begin to understand how we should grasp that our Lord says of Himself, “I am the door.”

Remember that when Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise, cut off from dwelling in the immediate and intimate presence of God, the gate – a form of a door – was guarded by cherubim with a flaming sword, to prevent Adam and Eve from seeking to return to the presence of God in that way. Now here is our Lord telling us that He, God, is the way for us to return to Paradise, to return to dwelling with God close by us – indeed, within us, something that Adam and Eve did not possess. He is the door to the abundant life He came to bring.

How do we access that door? We access it by becoming like Him: by drawing near to Him with faith, in love, through prayer and fasting and giving and forgiving; and by living at peace, with the love of God, with all those around us. And, to the extent we fail to do these things in love, we confess our sins, asking forgiveness, and starting again – even if we must break through our own ceiling, our earthly desires and attachments, in order to be lowered into His presence to be healed by the forgiveness of our sins.

Brothers and sisters, let us keep this in our hearts and on our minds as we journey through the forty days of fasting before Holy Week and Pascha. Let us remember that our Lord is the door by which we enter into eternal life; and let us, through the way of life of the Orthodox faith and church, strive to let the light and life of Christ be seen in and through us, so that we may enter through the Door, and bring others with us as well.

Called to Bear the Love of God

In the second reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we hear our Lord giving instructions on how we are to love. Those who were at the Vigil service last night also heard a reading from the first Epistle of St. John the Theologian that teaches us about how we are to love. It’s important enough that I want to read it again for the benefit of those who were unable to attend.

If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We know that it is important for us to pray, for praying is meant to draw us closer to God; but, as St. John the Theologian teaches us, if we do not love our brothers, we cannot say that we love God, no matter how wonderful our time in prayer may be. We know that it is important to fast, for fasting helps us gain the control we need over our flesh, so that the desires we experience for the things that feed our passions rather than our souls, and so lead us into sin and death, are mastered by the discipline of fasting; but keeping the most severe fast does us no good if we do not love each other. We know that it is important for us to give from the wealth that God has entrusted to us, because by giving to help those in need, and for the work of the Church, we set ourselves free from our attachments to worldly goods and pleasures, and so rise more easily to heaven; but even giving away everything gains us nothing if we do not act out of love.

Who are we to love? Our Lord tells us that our love must go beyond loving those who love us. It is easy – or, at least, easier – to love those who love us. We are certainly supposed to love our families: parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews. We are certainly called to love each other as we gather together to worship the Lord. But we must also love those who might laugh at us as we say a prayer before a meal, and make the sign of the Cross over ourselves in their presence. We must love those who, by word or by deed, offend us – such as the person who cuts us off on the highway, or gets in line ahead of us. We must love those who hate us, even those who would, if they were able, put us to death, so that we might no longer remind them of the reality of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and our hope that our sins will be forgiven, and we may be given eternal life with Him in heaven.

We are called to love, even when it is difficult to do so – if only because God, Who is holy and righteous, and who detests sin, has loved us when we were His enemies, has loved us in the midst of sinning, and has shown His love for us by becoming one with us, joining His divine nature to our fallen nature, restoring us to where we were before the Fall, and opening once more for us the way to dwell unceasingly in His presence, as Adam and Eve lived before they violated God’s commandment. God is merciful, and expresses His love for us in His mercy; and so we are to be merciful – but we cannot do so if we do not love.

Brothers and sisters, called to be the bearers of the love of God: this is a most difficult task. We cannot accomplish it without embracing ever more fully the Orthodox way of life. Let us ask God for the grace we need to become more fervent in prayer, more stringent in fasting, more generous in giving; to be humble and patient and forgiving, so that we may be purified and then filled with His love, so that all the world may know the great love of God by which we are saved, and so join with us in worshipping and glorifying the God of love.